Dallyn Bayles to perform in concert

Anyone who has heard Dallyn Vail Bayles sing understands how rich an offering he presents. With poise and presence he tenders not only a performance, but an experience. Bayles says. "It is an opportunity to give my heart and soul to an audience. I want to be so open and extroverted in my performance that the spirit of the music can flow through me uninhibited. I shouldn't control it or manipulate it in any way. I should be an instrument that the music and its message can work through."

Growing up the second of six children, in the small town of Green River, Bayles was surrounded by good people with good values and a family supportive of his performing activities. Summers were spent working the family business or going to live with his grandparents in Utah Valley so he could perform in local community theatre productions.

In sixth grade Bayles was introduced to his first mentor, the high school music and drama teacher, Jessica Jenkins. It was "Ms. J" who instilled in him a love for the performing arts and introduced him to the world of Broadway musicals.

In ninth grade she took a group of students to see the national tour of Les MisÃ¯Â¿Â½rables. "I marveled how anyone could sing and act like that, and be able to move me so deeply emotionally," Bayles says. "I knew in that moment the profession I would pursue." Little did he know, as a young high school student what opportunities the future would hold for him.

From that moment on Bayles worked diligently pursuing a career in the performing arts, which led him to the Music Dance Theatre program at Brigham Young University. It was also during those college years that Bayles realized a boyhood dream. He was cast as Feuilly in the Broadway touring company of Les MisÃ¯Â¿Â½rables.

"Performing in the Broadway tour of Les MisÃ¯Â¿Â½rables was more than a dream come true," Bayles says. "I remember walking around the stage just before the show would start, looking at the barricades, backdrop, lights and turntable, realizing that I was performing on the very same set I saw more than 10 years previous. Now everything had come full circle. My feeling of amazement was overwhelming, and I never got over it for the entire 14 months I was with the company."

Although he just released the first solo CD of his career, Bayles is no stranger to the world of recording and concert performing. He has been a featured soloist on numerous albums and in numerous concert halls. And with the release of Prayer, a dramatically intimate collection about communion with Deity, Bayles is now establishing himself not only as a powerful recording artist but also as an instrument through which others might feel the spirit of God.

"Each song on this album was carefully chosen not just because it fit the concept of prayer, but because each one has a personal and spiritual connection to my life experience. When people listen, I hope they are inspired, uplifted, comforted, taught, and/or made better. It is a reverent and worshipful album. It is heartfelt."